The find offers a glimpse into a previously unknown marine ecosystem — and spotlights just how little we know about the seafloor, says Euronews.

While mapping the seafloor some 250 miles off the coast of the Australian island of Tasmania, scientists recently discovered what’s being called a “volcanic lost world” deep underwater.

The chain of volcanic seamounts — huge undersea mountains that loom as tall as 9,800 feet, or more than six times taller than the Empire State Building — offer a glimpse into a previously unknown ocean ecosystem.

The seamounts vary in size and shape, with some having sharp peaks and others having plateaus, Tara Martin, a researcher with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Hobart, Tasmania, said in a statement. But even the tallest seamounts were still at least 6,500 feet below the ocean’s surface.

Environment

The scientists also encountered an unusual abundance of marine animals in the area, including humpback and long-finned pilot whales as well as albatrosses, petrels and other seabirds.

The unexpected discovery, made by Martin and other researchers aboard the organization’s research ship Investigator during a 25-day mapping expedition, highlights just how little we really know about the bottom of the ocean.

“We’ve only mapped a tiny fraction of the ocean floor,” said Andrew Fisher, a marine geologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved in the new discovery. “We have more detailed maps of Mars, Venus and the moon than we do of the seafloor. Other planetary bodies can be mapped in high resolution with satellites, but on Earth, the water layer gets in the way. The only way is to go out with ships.”

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Sea floor volcanos are probably massively underestimated. Quote from my IPCC-CO@ article.
“The IPCC gives CO2 emissions from volcanos as 0.1 GtC/y. It has apparently based this on the assumption that volcanos are evenly distributed across the Earth’s crust. Geologists disagree. The Earth’s crust is much thinner under the oceans. Recent thinking is that the numbers of sea floor volcanos may be several orders of magnitude greater than assumed and CO2 diffuses from a large surrounding area even when a volcano is otherwise inactive.
Casey (16) summarised the state of our understanding of volcanic emissions. He takes an estimate of 3,500,000 submarine volcanos (17) and, assuming 4% of these as active, calculates possible emissions of 120 GtC/y. He gives a conservative minimum of 24 GtC/y. My reading of his analysis is that his high figure is already conservative because he is knowingly leaving out diffusion from around the inactive volcanos.”

And if you can demonstrate that the CO2 from these volcanoes is somehow ‘human-caused’ then the IPCC will include it in its prognostications, otherwise it ‘doesn’t give a damn’, because its charter says so. What a con.

I am sure this has been reported before. I have a feeling the late Dr Bob Carter was involved in a drilling program eg http://www.margo.org.au/html/odp_australia.htm I thought it was mentioned that there were coral formations of a cool water type.off the southern coast of Tasmania.
Most know that Bob Carter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._Carter )was a geologist who knew more than all the so-called climate scientists put together. I di meet him and corresponded a little with him. Vale Bob.

Jo Nova writes:But remember, even though 80% of the ocean floor is unmapped, and we haven’t even logged, named or noticed thousands of volcanoes, we *know* that they are not heating the ocean, changing ocean currents, or affecting our climate. Skillless models tell us so. (Pay us your money).

We Have Found The Deepest Known Volcanic Eruption – A Field of Glass Under The Sea
2 NOV 2018

“We know that most of the world’s volcanic activity actually takes place in the ocean, but most of it goes undetected and unseen,” said marine geologist Bill Chadwick of Oregon State University and NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.

“Undersea quakes associated with volcanism are usually small, and most of the instrumentation is far away on land. Many of these areas are deep and don’t leave any clues on the surface. That makes submarine eruptions very elusive.”

Sorry link did not work-also now does not work for me-maybe later. I found the site by search for Ocean Drilling Program -this http://www-odp.tamu.edu/sitemap/dsdpmap.gif is a map that shows drilling sites around the world. It will be noted there are a number of sites a little south of Tasmania. The previous link showed them more clearly.

‘The unexpected discovery, made by Martin and other researchers aboard the organization’s research ship Investigator during a 25-day mapping expedition, highlights just how little we really know about the bottom of the ocean.’

Wow, that is amazing. I just went to Google Earth and looked at them. Wait . . . what ?!?!

Ocean mappers telling us that ocean mapping is very, very important. This report is an appeal to the ignorant for financial support.

This pdf is a report on the Ocean Drilling Program which has a forward by Dr Bob Carter and also a paper where he is co=author. Maybe the report is more for geologists but have a look at the map on Page 20.. It shows the Ocean Structures around Australia and south of Tasmania. It is a pity they did not have better camera to show where they were drilling but I believe some pictures were taken. As Gamecock above says the subject article is appealing for more money maybe for people who have little to contribute in comparison to experts with geological knowledge like Bob Carter.
I have downloaded the report for my files.